Attention all Forum Users.
We’re working on a brand new shiny tool to make your experience as simple as possible.
Which means the community forums is now read only whilst we work on a new & improved ‘My Contiki’ space.

Question

Laptops on tour

3 May 2013
MarnieJoy asked

Hi everyone. I'm doing my first Contiki trip in September-October 2013, the European Escapade and then Spotlight on Greece and 3 day Greek Islands cruise, and I'm taking a video camera to capture the trip. I was planning on taking my laptop too so while I'm on the bus I can do quick edits and upload videos to YouTube for my family and friends back home.
What do people think about taking a laptop on tour? Do many people do it?

you don’t need a laptop and I’ve been on 5 tours with contiki in all of them no one brought a laptop. I had the same question in mind before I did my first tour but chose to leave the laptop at home, which turned out to be better. Remember you’re carrying a small daily backpack inside the bus and the large suitcase with the luggage, you can’t leave it with the luggage as it could easily break due to the way luggage is loaded and stacked on top of each other. Carrying it inside the bus and then everyday on the road there are plenty of quick stops you will keep worrying about it all the time or you have to take it with you. Anyway there’s no internet on the road so you can’t really upload vids on youtube while on the bus. in the hotels internet is usually not that super fast and uploading could take ages. Take you camera and a smart phone (iphone, galaxy, htc,….. etc) to stay in touch via social networks like fb when internet connection is available. Enjoy your holiday while you’re there and leave the editing when you come home.

TAKECARE OF THECAMERATHOUGH. PEOPLE GO OUTGETDRINKANDCOMEBACKWITHOUTTHEM TO REALIZENEXTMORNING THEY’RE LOST. IT HAPPENEDALOT!

Having said all of the above, you still can take your laptop if you want to it’s not a problem.

good luck and have fun.

6 May 2013
NigelwClifford said

I agree with Explorer1251001, don’t worry about bringing the laptop, you’ll just worry about it being stolen and it will distract you from having fun and making great friends. If you want to do lots of filming then get a dropbox (or similar) account and upload all your video to your account to back it all up. But yeah, be super careful about drunkenly losing a camera while your out haha

6 May 2013
MarnieJoy said

Thanks guys, yeah I don’t think I will take it – number one reason being I’d be scared of it being lost or stolen, and I don’t want to have that worry around me all the time.

7 Jun 2013
Exploring_"X" said

MarnieJoy, I think it’s just a matter of personal preferences. I’ve been to a Contiki tour and there were a few people that have their laptops and I didn’t bring mine after reading some of the postings here and wished I had brought mine. Laptops are good for watching movies while on the bus, playing games, etc. Also, it’s good for when you have down time in your room to download your pictures to your laptop to clear up memory space on your camera. It’s a Contiki tour, but TRUST me, you’ll have down time in your room and wish you have your laptop. Also, in many of the hostels or hotels, there are only a handful of desktops and some people hog up the computers and you will have to wait. If you have yours you can just ask for the security pass code and go online on FB without having to wait for others.

I don’t think you will have to worry about it being stolen as the bus will be lock whenever you leave the bus. The only person with access to the bus is the bus driver and tour manager so I wouldn’t worry about it. Also, you’ll build friendships with all those people on the bus that you wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Just my 2 cent, hahahah.

8 Jun 2013
MarnieJoy said

Thanks everyone. I’ve actually just invested in an iPad which I use for work, so it will be perfect to take with me =)